Palace of Farmers, Kazanka Embankment and Kazan Family Center

Directly below the northern ramparts and sixteenth-century Taynitskaya Tower of the Kazan Kremlin, the broad lower terrace along the southern bank of the Kazanka River transforms from medieval whitewashed fortifications into monumental twenty-first-century civic architecture and a three-kilometre riverside promenade facing the skyline of Novo-Savinovsky District.

The Palace of Farmers (Agricultural Palace) on Palace Square

Set at the foot of a 15-metre grass hillside on Palace Square (36 Fedoseyevskaya Street), the Agricultural Palace, universally known as the Palace of Farmers (Dvorets Zemledeltsev in Russian, İgençelär sarayı in Tatar), houses the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan and its veterinary and agro-industrial directorates. Designed by lead architect Leonid Gornik of the firm Antika-Plus and constructed between spring 2008 and 2010 on the site of demolished nineteenth-century wooden houses, the symmetrical Beaux-Arts and classical complex evokes the Hofburg in Vienna and the Petit Palais in Paris while adhering strictly to the Ionic and Corinthian proportions codified by Renaissance theorist Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola:

• The 20-Metre Bronze Tree and Central Spire: Framing the central Corinthian triumphal arch is a 20-metre-tall sculpted bronze tree whose branches fill the open portal; at night emerald-green architectural floodlights illuminate the bronze canopy to symbolise living foliage beneath a spiral translucent dome that rises 48 metres above the square.
• Kazan Autumn Open-Air Opera: Since the early 2010s, the expansive paved plaza in front of the Palace of Farmers has hosted the annual free outdoor gala concert of the Kazan Autumn international opera festival on Republic and City Day (30 August), performed by the State Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan.

The Kremlin Embankment and the Millennium Bridge

Steps north of Palace Square begins the landscaped Kremlin Embankment (Kremlyovskaya Naberezhnaya), a flat, step-free concrete and timber promenade extending eastward along the left bank of the Kazanka River from the Kremlin dam to the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan (housed in the modernist red-stone building at 86 Pushkin Street on the hill above) and the Uram Extreme Park beneath the Millennium Bridge. In summer the embankment buzzes with pedal-cycle rentals, riverside terraces, and sunset views over the water, while in winter a long illuminated skating rink runs parallel to the frozen river. Spanning the Kazanka just upriver is the 835-metre cable-stayed Millennium Bridge, built between 2004 and 2007 with three traffic lanes and a pedestrian walkway in each direction suspended from a 45-metre central steel pylon shaped like the letter M, standing for both the Tatar word Meñyıllıq (thousand years) and the Latin Millennium celebrated in 2005.

The Kazan Family Center Cauldron Across the Kazanka

Looking directly across the Kazanka River from the Kremlin Embankment, or riding the metro one stop north from Kremlyovskaya to Kozya Sloboda, brings visitors to the Kazan Family Center (the municipal civil wedding registry, opened in July 2013 at 4 Sibgat Khakim Street). Designed by Buryat sculptor Dashi Namdakov, the building is shaped like a colossal bronze ceremonial cauldron (qazan) resting over stylised flames on a circular grassy peninsula jutting into the river. Guarding the ground-level entrances are four monumental bronze sculptures erected in 2016 by Namdakov: a pair of winged Zilant dragons (symbol of Kazan) and a pair of winged snow leopards (Aq Bars, symbol of Tatarstan) protecting their cubs. An internal staircase leads to a circular open-air viewing deck at the rim of the cauldron, 32 metres above the ground, offering the clearest panoramic photograph of the white Kazan Kremlin walls, Söyembikä Tower, Kul Sharif Mosque, and the Palace of Farmers lined up along the opposite bank.